© Tim Pannell Photography

Not everyone has a willing 2 year old subject at their disposal to use as an indentured “photo servant.”

My kids are all older now with my youngest being 12.

Older kids don’t always like to have their pictures taken, so how and when is the best time to photograph them?

By the way…..I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ve been both very sick and very busy.

I’ve been sick off and on for over 4 months….ever since we moved up here to Utah.

I finally went in to see a doctor and he determined I have allergies.  Who would have guessed?

I hadn’t had any allergy problems in Arizona in over 22 years.

I also had 2 photo assignments…..one that took me to LA 2 weeks ago and another that took me back to Arizona for all of last week.

I was shooting within 1/2 mile of our old home in Chandler and my daughter, who came along as my “digi-tech” assistant and I just wanted to hop over our old fence and go swimming one more time in our pool.

It would’ve been fun, but I decided to pretend to be mature…..so we didn’t.

© Tim Pannell Photography

OK, back to the subject…..I’m sure you’re not on here to hear me blather on about my personal junk.

Most teenagers, not all I realize, but most are involved in sports programs at some point during the school year and I’ve found that even the most uncooperative of my kids didn’t mind having their picture taken when performing.

My middle son really doesn’t care to have his picture taken….probably my fault for shooting him too much as a little guy.

He plays lacrosse and wanted me to shoot his team while they played in a tournament.

It was fun and a nice change of pace.  No posing, no giving directions, just covering what happens in the game.

© Tim Pannell Photography

There are other activities where you might be able to shoot your older kids and still be involved in directing.

Maybe you have a daughter or son in ballet.  There are lots of cool ways to shoot ballet.

If their instructor is amenable to it you might be able to shoot them at practice.

If your child has friends you can get a bunch of them involved as well and get shots that everybody’s excited about.

© Tim Pannell Photography

I shot all of these images in Orlando at a school for ballet.

The kids had a great time and were amazingly cooperative as well as incredibly talented.

As always….the name of the game is to have fun….it always shows in your final images if people had a good time or not.

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